Process of ornamenting wood.



No. 653,872. Patented July I7, 1900. D. LYNN.

PROCESS 0F ORNAMENTING WUUD.

(Application Bled Jan. 30, 1899.)

(No Model.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT OEEicE.

DAVID LYNN, OF ATHENS, PENNSYLVANIA.

PROCESS OF ORNAMENTING WOOD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N o. 653,872, dated July 17, 1900.

Application filed January 30, 1899. Serial No. 703,914. [No specimens.)

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, DAVID LYNN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Athens, in the county of Bradford and State of Pennsylvania, have invented or discovered a new and useful Process of Ornamenting Wood, of which the following is a specification.

My invention consists of a new and improved process of ornamenting the surface of wood intended to be used in furniture or cabinet work, whereby the appearance of the wood is changed, so that an inferior grade or quality of wood may have the appearance of a grade of a diierent or superior grade or quality. As typical of my process I will describe the treatment of a piece of oak wood whereby it is given the appearance of quartered oak, although it should be understood that my process is adapted for a wide variety of uses and is adapted to the simulation of many kinds of ornamental woods. Quartered oak is valuable and ornamental because of the exposure of the silver grain of the wood, and by my process I am enabled to simulate this grain so closely and exactly that it is almost impossible to distinguish between a piece of wood ornamented according to my process and a piece of natural quartered oak except by close and careful inspection.

In the accompanying drawings I have sought to illustrate my process by sectional views of Wood which has been subjected to the several steps of my process, the views being highly magnified for the purposes of better illustration.

Figures l, 2, 3, and at of the views are vertical sections of small pieces of wood, showing the several steps of my process; and Fig. 5 is aplan View of the same, the sectional views Figs. 2, 3, and et being taken on the line osx of such Fig.

In carrying out my process the piece of wood to be ornamented is first dressed and its surface smoothed in any desired manner, such piece of wood being represented in Fig. 1. To this dressed wood-surface I apply a coating of a material which is impervious to the Wood iller or stain, orto both, and therefore acts as to these as a stopping-coat, the said coat being applied to the surface at the places where it is desired the wood-surface should appear to show the silver grain. The

material which I prefer to use for this purpose is shellac, though other substances-such as varnish, glue, or size-might be employed. The shellac when thus employed enters the body ol the wood to a greater or less extent, as represented in Figs. 2, 3, and 4, where d indicates thestopping-coat. The material of which this stopping-coat, applied as described, is composedis transparent or translucent, so that itdoes not to any considerable extent hide the grain ofthe wood, which may be seen through such coating. In the making of imitation quartered oak a clear white shellac or varnish is employed, which leaves the wood at the places coated therewith with its natural color or with the color which it had at the time the coating was applied. IVhile the coating material enters the body of the wood lto a certain extent, as represented in the drawings, it does not do so completely, a portion of the applied coating extending above the plane orsurface of the wood as a protuberance, as represented at ct in Figs. 2 and 3.

The next step of my process is to apply to the dressed surface of the wood, marked or coated as already described, a coating of a filler material, which may also serve as a stain for the Wood. This may be done by dipping the wood into a receptacle containing the ller, by applying the ller with a brush, or in other suitable manner. The filler enters the wood freely at the uncoated portions; but where the stopping-coat has been applied the latter operates to a great extent or entirely to resist or stop the entrance or permeation of the Wood by the filler. This step in the process is represented in Fig. 3, where b represents the filler-coating. While, as represented in this iigure, the layer .of filling material may extend over and cover the markings a of varnish or shellac, such ller material does not permeate either the coating material ct or the wood which is covered and protected by the latter, so that the wood at the places where the stopping-coating is applied is unaffected by theller, and the color of the Wood is not changed at these places by the application thereof. It Willbe observed by reference to Fig. 3 that the protuberance a', formed by the portion of the coating a that does not enter the body of the Wood, is further augmented by the layer b' IOO , ent results.

of filler material which covers the said protuberance 0,'.

The next step in my process is the dressing of thesurface, treated as already described, to remove the protuberances ct b and to reduce the surface of the wood to a plane. For this purpose I use a suitable abrading material-such as pumice stone, fine emery or sandpaper, or other suitable material-which grinds off the protubera-nces and properly smoothes the surface. Theeffect of this is to expose the shellac, varnish, or other substance used as a stopping-coat and with which the surface of the Wood` Was first marked, so that the natural color of the Wood may appear at these places. There will thus be a contrast in the appearance of the Wood between the portions of the surface which have the stopping-coat applied and those which do not.

The foregoing are the essential and the novel steps of my process. I prefer, however, after the step last described to varnish and polish the smoothed surface of the Wood in any desired Way. 1

It Will be understood that the material of which the stopping-coat is composed might be colored and, further, that the process herein described will be modified or changed in immaterial respects in the treatment ofV different kinds of Woods and to secure diifer- I do not consider it necessary, however, to describe my invention further t-han has already been done, asthe modifications or variations in the process above re` ferred to Will readily suggest themselves to those skilled in the art of dressing and treating Wood-surfaces for ornamental purposes.

What I claim is- Y 1. The herein-described process of ornamenting Wood-surfaces, which consists in ap'-, plying to the dressed surface of the Wood a stoppingcoat according to a desired design, which stopping-coat enters the body of the' Wood to a certain extent, but also protrudes above the surface thereof, then coating the entire surface of the wood with a material such as a wood-ller, and then dressing olf the surface to remove the protuberances where the stopping-coat is applied, leaving the latter exposed, substantially as set forth.

2. The herein-described process of ornamenting Wood-surfaces, which consists in applying tothe dressed surface of the wood a stopping-coat according to a desired design, which stopping-coat enters the body of the Wood to a certain extent, but also protrudes above the surface thereof,then coating the entire surface of the wood with a material such as a Wood-filler, then dress-ing the surface with an abrading substanceA to remove the protuberances where the stopping-coat is applied, exposing thevlatter, and finishing the surface with varnish in a usual manner, substantially as set forth.

H. F. JOHNSON, GEO. B. SOMERVILLE. 

